Former Manchester United goalkeeper Mark Bosnich has challenged Sir Alex
Ferguson to repeat to his face the accusation that he 'was a terrible
professional who ate excessively'

Mark Bosnich wants a face-to-face meeting with Sir Alex Ferguson so that he can challenge the former Manchester United manager to repeat personally his accusation that he was a “terrible professional” who ate excessively.

In his autobiography that goes on general sale today, Ferguson accused Bosnich of eating “like a horse” and outlined his struggle to persuade the Australian to change his ways.

Bosnich responded on Wednesday by saying that he wants to set the record straight in person with his former manager. “I’ll definitely go down there if he is down there and ask to see him,” Bosnich said. “I’m going to tell him straight to his face and I’ll ask him to repeat [his criticism] and then I will tell him exactly what I want to say and you guys can all read about it.”

Bosnich is insistent that he generally returned from pre-season overweight and that what happened after he signed in 1999 was not out of the ordinary.

“I usually returned two kilograms overweight and on this occasion I was two and a half,” the Australian said. “In my second spell at the club, we won the Premier League title by a margin of 18 points and also became the first British team to become world champions.”

Bosnich is the second former player to respond to stinging criticism from Ferguson after Roy Keane accused his former manager of not knowing the meaning of the word “loyalty”.

Others are keeping their counsel, with David Beckham deciding, at least for now, not to respond to the accusations that he “lost focus” and that his falling in love with wife Victoria was “a problem” to Ferguson.

Owen Hargreaves, Rafael Benítez and Ruud van Nistelrooy are all also considering their next move following strong criticism.

Chelsea are pointing towards their previous joint statement with the Premier League and the elite referees that agreed they had an obligation to report the allegation from one of their players – even if it was unproven – that referee Mark Clattenburg aimed a racial slur at John Obi Mikel.

Clattenburg was completely cleared of any wrongdoing in a subsequent inquiry and, in his book, Ferguson said that he still wondered whether the allegation was made by Chelsea as a smokescreen to obscure crowd trouble during the game.

Ferguson’s observation that he did not regard Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard as “a top, top player” has also met with a predictable response on Merseyside. “It was no surprise to see Fergie stick the boot into Liverpool, he’s done that for the last 30 years or so,” John Aldridge, the former Liverpool striker said.

“Any manager or player who has ever come across Steven in the game will tell you he’s world class. Words fail me. I’m just surprised he had to stoop so low.”

Ferguson also admitted in his book that United had grown reluctant to buy players from Tottenham Hotspur following their dealings with Spurs chairman Daniel Levy over Michael Carrick and Dimitar Berbatov. He described the experience as like riding a big dipper. “You come off dizzy,” Ferguson wrote.